The Makabayan bloc of party-list lawmakers sought to separate themselves from the list of 24 mostly opposition lawmakers who were punished by the House of Representatives’ leadership by scrapping fund allocations for infrastructure projects intended for their districts or constituencies in the 2018 national budget.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate clarified that no budget allocation for infrastructure projects was removed from his office, as he did not propose any project to any department in the first place.
“Since my first term in Congress in 2013 and until now, I did not partake of any pork barrel-type congressional allocation in pursuance of our advocacy against patronage politics and the pork barrel system,” Zarate said in a statement.
The sentiment was echoed by his colleague, ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio.
“Consistent with our stand against the pork barrel system, we have no infrastructure projects. We submitted no proposals for infrastructure projects. As far as we’re concerned, there’s nothing to ‘zero,’” Tinio said.
Advocacy
Tinio said his group’s electoral success proved that its constituents voted for ACT Teachers on the strength of its advocacies, not patronage.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Thursday confirmed the Makabayan lawmakers’ contention that they had “not accessed funds from Congress at all.”
But Alvarez added: “We do not know where they get funds for projects for their constituents. All we know is that the communist rebels, with whom they have an ideological and political affinity, impose what’s known as revolutionary taxation in areas where they operate.”
“According to the military, in southern Mindanao alone, the NPA (New People’s Army) collects close to P500 million yearly in revolutionary taxes. This is plain and simple extortion. We have not heard from the Makabayan bloc a clear and unequivocal condemnation of revolutionary taxation, leading us to suspect that they either directly or indirectly benefit from it,” he said.
The Speaker issued the statement after the Makabayan lawmakers criticized the House leadership’s move to delete budget items from the districts or party-list group constituencies of mostly opposition House members.
Malicious insinuation
In a statement, the Makabayan bloc protested what it called a “malicious insinuation” by the Speaker that its members were beneficiaries of revolutionary tax.
“We in the Makabayan bloc detest the malicious and dangerous red tagging by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. It is clear that the House leadership just wants to divert attention from the now-awakened issue of thriving pork barrel in Congress,” the bloc said.
In his statement, Alvarez also questioned Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a leader of the Magnificent Seven opposition group, about the P3.8-billion allocation that supposedly went to his district.
In response, Lagman issued a statement calling the Speaker’s claim “utterly preposterous.”
“How could an opposition representative propose and be accorded this amount of projects?” he said.
Lagman, however, acknowledged that he had been advised by the House appropriations committee chair, Rep. Karlo Nograles, to submit “probably like most other representatives,” P50 million and later an additional P20 million for hard infrastructure projects for his district.
Lagman said these were legitimate priority projects and not pork barrel as defined by the Supreme Court.
Affront to constituents
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, a Liberal Party member, also slammed Alvarez for depriving lawmakers critical of the Duterte administration of their infrastructure funding.
Erice said he was prepared to seek legal remedies and even “go to the streets with his constituents” to demand that the infrastructure funding for his district be reinstated.
“It seems as if the Speaker has let the power get into his head. He should know I will not take this sitting down. This is an affront to us and our constituents,” he told the Inquirer.
Zarate and Tinio said the deletion of budget allocation for certain lawmakers showed that the “pork barrel system” remained in place. —REPORTS FROM DJ YAP AND KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING